Wimax standard commercialised this year

The next generation of the WiMAX standard will be commercialised this year, according to industry officials.

WiMAX2, is based on the 802.16m standard, and promises to be backwards compatible with the current Mobile WiMAX platform. It will, of course, go like the clappers , be more secure and require less power. It will also support wide 20MHz channels. The IEEE is meeting in Taipei at the moment in an initial meeting towards the finalisation of the 16m standard. It is expected it will all be approved by March, which would set the scene for products to appear at the end of this year.

The current 16e platform took ages before products could be certified, however it should be quicker this time because it is an extension of an existing standard. Taiwan's state-run Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI) is working closely with 10 local manufacturers to kickstart the uptake of WiMAX2. Taiwan is a critical player in getting the standard out.